Why am I here? Why do I exist? I’ve been thinking about my purpose in life for a couple of years. I don’t want to have any purpose, I want to know the purpose so I can go out there, achieve it, and live happily ever after.

It used to give me anxiety. If I have this very specific purpose that I’m meant to achieve, but I don’t actually know it, well then how do I achieve it? Imagine somebody kidnaps you and drops you on a boat in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. They tell you to find this hidden treasure that’s worth billions and is marked with an X. Except they forgot to put the X on the map… Do you go left or right? What about 5 minutes later? It doesn’t matter, because you’re not getting the treasure. If you’re lucky you get to swim with the dolphins, wander through masses of bioluminescent plankton and be a witness to the wondrous migration of sea turtles. But you’re never finding that treasure.

If you’re religious, you don’t have to worry about this. Believing in a God removes this existential dread. There is this all-Powerful, all-Knowing and all-Good deity that watches over you. They know your purpose and as long as you listen, they will help you get there. If you’re struggling, that’s alright because they have a plan. You don’t have to know it, but as long as you put your trust in them, you can face the hardships of life and know that there’s a reason for them, and that you will be better off in the end, either in this life or the next. This is honestly a great deal.

But what if you’re one of the 500 million people that doesn’t believe in a God? What do you do when there’s nobody watching over you, when it’s just you, 80 years of consciousness and no manual on how to fill them?

After several walks in the forest and visits to expensive coffee shops I have the answer: life is meaningless.

WHAT

I’ll assume that you’re an atheist because you subscribe to a scientific view of the world. The universe started with a Big Bang. After 13.7 billion years of infinite atoms colliding everywhere, atoms came together in the right configuration to make you and give you consciousness for a blip in time. The universe is infinitely big and happening on an infinitely big time-scale: everything that does not violate the physical laws that govern it is bound to happen eventually: including a hairy ape developing consciousness and driving itself to extinction (but I digress).

So there’s nothing more to you, you’re an arbitrary event happening in the universe because you could happen. And the meaning of your life? Well there’s no meaning in the universe. It’s just a thing bound by laws we write on a whiteboard. Because the universe has no objective meaning(again, it’s arbitrary), you also have no meaning. In fact nothing does. For something to have meaning, that meaning must be assigned by someone or something. If you are a firm believer in a cold, inanimate and scientific universe, there is no someone or something else that can assign you that meaning. You are as important as a pile of space dust orbiting Saturn.

Well that’s a depressing, nihilistic take on existence

An atheist that holds a scientific world-view must agree with the nihilist: there are no true religious and moral principles (since there is no God, only science) and life is meaningless. You might think that’s depressing. I call it the best thing ever.

The fact that there is no God, the fact that there is no objective overarching meaning is not a sad realization to be mourned, it is the ultimate gift to be held in highest regard. In my view, a universe with no God is better than the alternative. A universe with no objective meaning, one where your life doesn’t truly matter is the most beautiful universe you could live in. Because it is a universe where you are truly free. Because there is no deity assigning meaning to your life, the only other person that can assign meaning to it is you.

The idea that you ultimately decide how you should live your life and the yardstick to measure it with is terrifying, but deeply liberating once internalized. The world is your oyster.

So let me revise my previous statement: life is meaningless, except for the meaning you give it. Each person’s life meaning is deeply personal to their experience, their desires and their dreams. My meaning is not the same as your meaning and it shouldn’t be. We’re two completely different people on different life journeys.

So if you’re an atheist, congrats you pile of space dust, your life has no meaning and that’s the best thing ever. Figure out your X, draw it on your map, and sail onwards. You don’t have all the time in the world.